Rare eclipse Wednesday will show darkened moon and rising sun together

A total eclipse of the moon on Wednesday will offer stargazers a rare chance to see both an eclipsed moon and a rising sun at the same moment, thanks to an optical trick played by the earth’s atmosphere.

The upcoming eclipse
will be the second this year and part of a series of four total
lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015. The hour-long event will be most
visible in the Western Pacific, Asian Far East, New Zealand and
Australia’s eastern coast.

However, observers east of the Mississippi River in the United
States, an area where the moon will only be partially visible
when earth’s shadow covers it, will be rewarded for braving the
early hours of Wednesday just before sunrise with a rare viewing
of a selenation, reports Space.com.

It’s a seemingly impossible occurrence when the eclipsed setting
moon, together with a rising sun, are visible in the sky
simultaneously. The event happens due to an atmospheric trick
that refracts the light coming from the two celestial bodies
making them appear just over the horizon when in fact they are
just below it.

Depending on the location, there will be an open window of about
2 to 9 minutes when it will be possible to catch the rising sun
in the east and the eclipsed moon setting in the west. Seeing
them would also require favorable weather conditions and perhaps
the use of binoculars or a telescope.